Lesson for September 29, 2019
The Integrity of God – Lesson 16
The Doctrine of Capacity Righteousness
Capacity is defined as the ability to receive and to retain. Capacity is the maximum amount that can be contained. Mental capacity is the power for receiving knowledge. Capacity is used for the potential to perform something. Capacity righteousness is defined as the ability of a believer to receive greater blessings from God based on their spiritual advance under the filling of the Holy Spirit and is often called practical righteousness. The potential for capacity righteousness is given to every believer at the moment of salvation through faith in Christ, even though it is undeveloped and is potential only. The development of capacity righteousness is done under the filling of the Holy Spirit and the study and application of Bible doctrine. Every believer has the potential of developing capacity righteousness because they were given a human spirit at salvation with its spiritual I.Q. in order to understand Bible doctrine.
Capacity righteousness is the key to true happiness in life because it means that a believer is advancing in their spiritual life and developing capacity righteousness. God does not bless us beyond our capacity to receive blessing. True happiness in life has to do with what is in our soul. Capacity righteousness is the God-given capability for divine blessing and the doctrinal capacity to appreciate blessing from God and turn it into happiness in the soul. (Matthew 6:33)
At the moment of faith in Christ, believers are given perfect righteousness which sets them apart to God (Positional Sanctification). God imputes His righteousness to us so that He may bless us without compromising His divine essence and so we will have the potential of having the capacity to enjoy those blessings. God blesses us because of Who and what He is, not who and what we are or what we do. All believers are given logistical grace blessings regardless of their spiritual status.
If you are going to live with God forever, you must have an equivalent righteousness to God. God does not accept any human equivalent. Every believer, at the moment of salvation, receives God’s very own perfect righteousness. Blessing comes through the righteousness of God. God’s perfect righteousness dwells in every believer. Possession of God’s righteousness is the basis for both grace blessing and life support (logistical grace) necessary to fulfill the Protocol Plan of God. We do not do anything for blessing and support from God, just as we did nothing for our salvation.
Divine righteousness is one half of divine holiness. The other half is divine justice. The righteousness and justice of God work in tandem. The righteousness of God is the principle of divine holiness. The justice of God is the function of divine holiness. Justice does the giving. Righteousness does the receiving because capacity for everything comes down “the grace pipeline” from the justice of God to the believer’s indwelling righteousness of God. There is a grace pipeline between the justice and righteousness of God. By having the imputed righteousness of God, we have the capacity for divine blessing. The grace pipeline is a way of stating how God blesses believers. We are never blessed because of what we do even if it is legitimate divine production. God blesses His very own righteousness found in believers in keeping with His divine essence so that He alone receives all the glory. The grace pipeline therefore rejects any human work, so that God receives the glory that He alone deserves. (see attached illustration)
The justice of God the Father administers what the righteousness of God the Father demands. This is how God avoids compromising His holiness. All capacity for blessing is related to the imputed righteousness of God, not human righteousness. God is fair, He never blesses us beyond our capacity. The justice of God administers divine support and blessing to every believer because all believers possess the perfect righteousness of God.
The basis for logistical grace support and blessing to every believer is God’s righteousness, which is received at salvation. Therefore, all believers have capacity for logistical grace support at salvation. However, greater blessings are received only with increased capacity, as a believer fulfills the Protocol Plan of God for their life. (Romans 3:20)
Your spiritual life is fulfilled with three spiritual skills. God does not bless us beyond our capacity, and our capacity can only be fulfilled through growing in grace by means of the spiritual skills: metabolized Bible doctrine, Problem-Solving Devices and the Protocol Plan of God. In contrast to the spiritual skills are the arrogance skills of self-righteousness, self-justification, self-deception, and self-absorption. James 4:6, “God makes war against the arrogant believer, but He gives grace to the humble (teachable) believer.” James 4:10, “Therefore, humble yourselves before the Lord and He will promote you.” Luke 14:11, “Everyone who exalts himself [the arrogance skills] will be humbled [divine discipline], but he who humbles himself will be exalted (promoted).” I Peter 5:6, “Therefore, humble yourselves under the powerful hand of God that He may exalt (promote) you at the proper time.” Proverbs 16:18, “Arrogance precedes destruction; and before a fall there is a lifestyle of arrogance.” II Corinthians 10:18, “Not he who promotes himself is approved, but whom the Lord promotes.”
Capacity righteousness provides capacity for various categories of divine blessing on earth. Capacity righteousness is the capacity for the conveyance of your spiritual blessings while here on earth. When there is no capacity for divine blessing, it means the arrogance skills are in place in a believer. It means that believers are justifying themselves, deceiving themselves, and are completely absorbed with themselves.
Capacity Righteousness for Eternity.
Capacity righteousness for eternity is the righteousness every believer possesses and at the moment of their resurrection at the Rapture is part of Ultimate Sanctification. It is the capacity righteousness of the eternal state. You will never have a bad moment in the eternity. Ultimate Sanctification begins when the believer receives his resurrection body. The righteousness we possess at the resurrection or rapture of the Church will give us the capacity to enjoy all the blessings of eternity. II Peter 3:13, “But on the basis of His promise [the divine promise for better things in the eternal state] we are looking forward with confidence to new heavens, and a new earth in which perfect righteousness lives.”
Integrity (a strict adherence to the truth of Bible doctrine) is the capacity for blessing. In the Church Age, we have the best of everything God has to offer, thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ. Integrity and capacity righteousness are the keys to happiness. Both have to be provided by God, and they are. The fact you are alive indicates to you that you have the potential for happiness. Positional righteousness guarantees equality for all believers to the fulfill the Protocol Plan of God.
God is perfect therefore He has perfect happiness. Nothing can make God unhappy. God’s happiness is based on His capacity. His capacity is His perfect and eternal holiness, which includes His perfect righteousness and justice. God desired to share His happiness with us, so He gave us His very own righteousness at salvation as capacity for logistical grace blessing and greater blessing. He also entered us into union with Christ so that we share Christ’s righteousness. Therefore, we have the potential to share the happiness of God. During our life on earth as believers, we have a capacity righteousness which comes from using the three spiritual skills. When we execute the Protocol Plan of God, then we have the capacity to share the happiness of God.
Happiness and virtue (strength of character) cannot be separated. Through His grace policy, God has found a way to share His happiness with mankind by providing capacity righteousness. God’s righteousness in Ultimate Sanctification is the God-given capacity for greater blessings in the eternal state. God’s righteousness provides a potential capacity for true happiness both now and in eternity. God never gives greater blessing beyond our capacity to receive it.
The spiritual skills are involved in knowing the path of life, which is a believer’s spiritual life. Sharing the perfect happiness of God is the capacity in the eternal state for pleasures forever. There is no pleasure for the believer apart from capacity.
Psalm 16:11, “You will make known to me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of happiness. At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Proverbs 3:13, “Happiness to the person who finds wisdom; even to the person who gains understanding.”
John 15:11, “I have taught you these things that My happiness may be in you, and that your happiness may be fulfilled.”
